Bishop Ryder Church, Birmingham

Bishop Ryder Church stood in Gosta Green, Birmingham, on Gem Street. It was a red-brick and stone building in the Gothic style, designed by Thomas Rickman and Richard Charles Hussey. The church opened in 1838 to honour Henry Ryder, Bishop of Lichfield. A new parish was created from St Martin in the Bull Ring in 1841. The chancel was rebuilt in 1894 by J. A. Chatwin, paid for by J. C. Holder in memory of his father. The church united with St Mary’s Whittall Street parish in 1925 and with St Bartholomew’s in 1939. The church’s bells tell part of its story. A single bell by William Taylor of Oxford was installed for the opening in 1838. In 1869 Blews and Son provided a ring of eight bells for £600, later recast by Taylors of Loughborough. The organ also changed over time. The first cost £270 and was built by Theodore Charles Bates, opened in December 1841. It was replaced in 1882 by an organ from J. C. Banfield, renovated in 1939 by Walter James Bird. The church was demolished in 1960 and Gem Street no longer exists. It once stood in the middle of what is now Aston University campus. The bells were moved to St Peter’s Church in Harborne after closure. The organ’s details remain listed on the National Pipe Organ Register. Vicars served the parish from 1838 until 1956, with names like M. A. Collinson and George Edwin Badger among them. Organists included William Elliott and William Henry Johns, who served from 1888 to 1936.